The first ever region-wide debate was held by London CF over the last three weeks. It took three rounds to whittle sixteen teams from Associations, Areas and Universities down to the final two for the grand finale in Parliament. The first round took place at UCL, rounds two and three at the LSE and the final was held in the Macmillan room at Portcullis House. Nearly one hundred people of all ages and political beliefs came to watch the final and hear the two sides debate the motion that “this house believes that the Big Society is a cover for gratuitous cuts“.
Both the opposition (North Central Area) and the proposition (LSE) debated very well impressing both the judges and the audience. However, in the the end, the opposition’s defence of the Big Society won over the judges. Jason Theo George and Oliver Ward said that Labour had created a selfish society and that “the Big Society will inspire people to give back to society and their local communities so that people begin to ask ‘what can I do for my country’“. The independent judges who, in the spirit of the Big Society, volunteered came from the Cogers public speaking society. Judges Gwyn Redgers and Alex Young said in summation that they had found the quality of debating to be very high in all of the rounds.
At the competition’s conclusion the South-West Area team came third (Will Hargreaves and Nick Southworth), LSE came second (Chris Wilford and Philip Chui) and North Central Area were the winners (Jason Theo George and Oliver Ward).
Aside from the glory of being the first to have their names engraved on the London CF Debate Shield the winners each received a bottle of champagne signed by the Prime Minister. The runners up each received a bottle of House of Commons wine and semi-finalists a House of Commons pen.
The guest of honour, the Attorney General the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP, came to present the prizes as well as to give some of his own thoughts on the Big Society and take questions from the audience on a variety of topics. We were also joined by Lord Lingfield, Marina Yannakoudakis MEP, Andrew Boff AM and James Cleverly AM who socialised with the guests during the drinks reception.
The popularity of the debates has been overwhelming. Over the course of the competition I have been approached by many people saying that this is exactly the kind of event that Conservative Future should hold on a regular basis. The Chairman of the London Universities Conservative Council, William Hall, also commented that there has been a noticeable increase in attendance at university debates as interest has peaked. I very much hope that other Regions will consider hosting similar debates so that all CFers can have the same experience and so that our regional champions might be able to take on others. With numerous plaques on the shield I hope that my successors will continue the London debate and I look forward to organising the next one in 2012.
Some clips are available on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/LondonConservativeF
More photos can be viewed on Flickr www.flickr.com/londoncf
